Fire claims Houston home

A Houston family knows what they want for Christmas this year -- somewhere to live after a propane fire took their house Monday night in near 40-below-zero weather.

Mark and Adina McDonald and their four children hurried from their trailer home just before 9 p.m. Monday while flames engulfed the home from beneath. In the rush, some of the children did not have time to even grab their shoes.

Under a decorated tree in a corner of the home were Christmas gifts for Nicole, 14, Israel, 11, Liam, 4, and Alexa, 2.

"That's the worse part, losing it all at Christmas," Mark McDonald said.

The fire apparently started when McDonald went under the Pine Bluff trailer to thaw out a pressure tank and primer button late Monday evening. Pipe-freezing problems in the sub-zero cold required him to use a space heater.

"The propane tank ignited into a flash of fire. I was trapped under the house with insulation falling on me. My family didn't know there was a fire. By the time I got out, the bottom was totally engulfed," McDonald said. "I hurried up and got them out of there."

The volunteer fire departments of Houston, Big Lake, Meadow Lake and Willow responded shortly after 9 p.m., said Rocky Jones, deputy chief of the Big Lake Fire Department.

By the time firefighters arrived, flames already blazed from each end of the trailer and burst the windows, Jones said. It took nearly an hour to put out the fire and another hour to extinguish smoldering ash.

"There was a space heater and frozen pipes under the trailer," Jones said. "He was in process of thawing the pipes when it got too hot and the fire started."

Jones connected the McDonald family to the American Red Cross for help replacing clothing and household goods. In the meantime, they have been sleeping at Adina McDonald's sister's home. She and her husband also have four children, which makes for crowded living conditions, Mark McDonald said.

The McDonald family moved up from Salem, Ore., two years ago. Mark took a job with Paradise Discount Bedding until that company went out of business, then was hired at Cash Carpet in Wasilla where he works as the warehouse manager. His wife is a stay-at-home mom, taking care of the four children.

A friend and co-worker at Cash Carpet, Joel Cummings, worked Tuesday morning to set up an account at Northrim Bank for people wanting to help the McDonald family. A fire relief fund is in account No. 71000 74629.

The Red Cross gave the McDonald's vouchers the family was able to use Tuesday at Fred Meyer for food and clothing.

"The Red Cross really blessed us," Adina Graham McDonald said. "While we were standing at the check out, the manager at Fred Meyer and a blonde woman kept coming up with extra food for us to take. They were so patient while we spent three-and-a-half hours finding the clothes we needed."

The next step is to locate housing.

"If Santa could bring us somewhere to live, that would be great," Mark McDonald said.